Public Banks Embrace Green Finance! Ho Ying-Ming, General Manager of Land Bank of Taiwan, attended the opening ceremony of the “2050 Net Zero City Expo” on the 19th, themed “Green Finance,” jointly exhibiting with 8 public banks to showcase the bank's recent achievements in promoting the Ministry of Finance's ESG initiative platform. This highlights Taiwan's smart city and net-zero city development momentum.
According to statistics from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) under the United Nations, the global average temperature has hit a historic high in the past decade, with 2023 being the hottest year in human history. Facing climate change risks, Taiwan formulated the “2050 Net Zero Emissions Pathway and Strategy Overview” in 2022, including four major transformation strategies, two governance foundations, and twelve key strategic action plans, aligning Taiwan internationally towards a net-zero transformation.
Among the key strategic action plans, public banks are tasked with the critical role of green finance, including understanding corporate clients' carbon emissions, promoting data value-added and integration applications, using financial tools to guide enterprises and ensure due diligence, driving local enterprise supply chain decarbonization transformation.
In response to national policies, Land Bank of Taiwan, as a professional real estate bank, has been active in promoting “urban renewal and accelerated reconstruction loans for aging buildings,” as well as launching special project loans such as “Green Building Financing” and “Green Building Mortgages.” As long as clients meet conditions like using green building materials and obtaining Taiwan Architecture & Building Center's green building certificate, Land Bank of Taiwan offers interest rate or fee discounts, not only practicing green finance but also enhancing the quality of living for residents. At the “2050 Net Zero City Expo,” concrete achievements in urban renewal for aging buildings were showcased. As of 2023, Land Bank of Taiwan has approved cumulative financing of NT$185.1 billion for urban renewal and NT$60.2 billion for aging building reconstruction, leading among public banks.
Furthermore, Land Bank of Taiwan has long cultivated core strategic industries and SME loans, elderly care trusts, improved customer service quality, and support for badminton sports, further demonstrating remarkable ESG performance. It has not only received the FSC's “Six Core Strategic Industry Loan Excellence Award,” “SME Loan Outstanding Bank Equitable Regional Development Special Award in Central Taiwan,” and “Trust 2.0 Project Evaluation Elderly Care Trust Award” but also maintained a top 25% ranking in the banking industry fairness assessment for five consecutive years and received the Ministry of Education's Sports Promotion Award for 15 consecutive years.
To expand its sustainable competitiveness, Land Bank of Taiwan's operational focus this year is on leading in green finance and sustainable prosperity. Starting from the FSC's Green Finance Action Plan 3.0, it incorporates climate change and related risks into business operations, seizes opportunities, includes ESG factors in investment, financing, and product review processes, sets general industry exclusions and limits for high-polluting/energy-consuming industries, issues sustainable development bonds, launches green deposit products, and actively collaborates with corporate partners, guiding them and individual customers towards ESG green sustainability goals, creating an ecosystem of sustainable prosperity for the bank, society, and environment.
Contact person: Li Hsi-Chih
Tel.: 02-2348-3295
